A British lawmaker on Sunday alleged that she was sacked from a ministerial role in the Conservative Party government in February 2020 because of her “Muslimness”.
Nusrat Ghani, a member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party, was sacked from her role as Transport Minister during a cabinet reshuffle in February 2020.
Ghani told the Sunday Times that a whip said her “Muslimness was raised as an issue” at a meeting in Downing Street.
She also told that she had been sacked after a party official said her religion was making other lawmakers “uncomfortable.”
Ghani said she was told, “that my Muslim woman minister status was making colleagues uncomfortable and that there were concerns I wasn’t loyal to the party as I didn’t do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations.”
The former transport minister said she was told this by a “whip,” an enforcer of parliamentary discipline.
Mark Spencer, the government’s chief whip, said he was the person at the center of Ghani’s allegations.
“These accusations are completely false and I consider them to be defamatory,” he said on Twitter. “I have never used those words attributed to me.”
“I provided evidence to the Singh Investigation into Islamophobia which concluded that there was no credible basis for the claims to be included in the report,” he added.
“We have absolutely zero tolerance for any discrimination, and any Islamophobia, in the Conservative Party,” Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Sky News on Sunday.
Conservative lawmaker Nadhim Zahawi called for an investigation.
Johnson’s office said that the prime minister was aware of the claims at the time, and that he had invited her to make a formal complaint.
“After being made aware of these extremely serious claims, the Prime Minister met with Nusrat Ghani to discuss them,” said a Downing Street spokesperson.
“He then wrote to her expressing his serious concern and inviting her to begin a formal complaint process. She did not subsequently do so. The Conservative Party does not tolerate prejudice or discrimination of any kind.”
Ghani was the first Muslim woman to be appointed as a British government minister, according to The BBC. She was a public critic of former opposition Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of antisemitism in his party.
An independent investigation said in 2021 that Islamophobia in the Conservative Party was a problem, but fell short of “institutional racism.”
The center-right party had been dogged for years by accusations of anti-Muslim sentiment that had been leveled against members, including Johnson.
Ghani’s accusation adds to mounting problems for Johnson. The prime minister is facing a political crisis over allegations that he and staff held lockdown-flouting parties while Britain was under coronavirus restrictions, and he faces other fresh accusations of bullying in his party by its whips.
(With inputs from agencies)
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